Amazon.com: To the Devil, My Regards eBook: Anthony Neil Smith, Victor Gischler: Kindle Store: Z.Z. DelPresto is a ne'er-do-well private eye who stumbles into trouble along the beaches of Alabama and Florida. But this time he may have waded out too far. The evidence appears to show him killing the seventeen-year-old girl he'd fallen for. But Z.Z. knows good and well he didn't do it, and now he's in the fight of his life to prove it. Throw in the girl's rich and ruthless parents, some cops who have been trying to put DelPresto away for years, a topless tourist and a stuttering psychic who knows all of tomorrow's sports scores today, and you have a story you just can't put down. Combine Gischler's colorful eccentricity with Smith's grinding noir, and you end up with this unique novella: To the Devil, My Regards. Originally published in 2001, Gischler and Smith now bring this crazy tale to Kindle, with a new cover by "Pokerben" Springer.

The Hollywood Reporter: Bob Stewart, the creator and producer of such legendary TV game shows as The Price Is Right, To Tell the Truth and Password, died Friday of natural causes at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 91.

AbeBooks: Father of Fantasy - George MacDonald: George MacDonald (1824-1905) - a Scottish Victorian novelist - was well-read and revered by an impressive selection of literary figures. CS Lewis, CK Chesterton, JRR Tolkien, Madeleine L'Engle and Mark Twain (who apparently initially disliked MacDonald but ultimately became his friend) have all cited MacDonald as being a large influence on their own work. His lecturing and views brought him wide recognition and respect. MacDonald wrote over 50 books, including, poetry, novels, short stories, fantasy, sermons and essays. Many of his novels were part autobiographical and focused on his upbringing and life in Scotland.

Tove Jansson: The Real Moominmamma: An artistic and bohemian upbringing coupled with a desire to battle depression in post-war Europe inspired Tove Jansson to create the Moomins – some of literature’s most intriguing creatures. Though she is best known for the books set in Moominvalley, Jansson’s writing touched readers of all ages.

Check this one out. How could I resist a book that reminds someone of my own work? This is the first of a new cozy series that I highly recommend.

Amazon.com: The Malice Plant eBook: Ainy Rainwater: Kindle Store: "Gardening with intent to kill.... Ainy Rainwater's fast-paced and witty mystery is a winner. Her Cedar Lake reminds me of Bill Crider's delightful small-town Texas, and she handles the gardening aspects of the story with such a sure hand she made me believe in the malice plant." Lillian Stewart Carl, author of the Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron mysteryseries

After Ivy Willowby dies in her garden with a Malice Plant in her hand, Rosemary Wilde is stunned to find she's the beneficiary of Ivy's will---if she outlives the survivorship clause. With potential heirs buzzing around like angry bees, burglaries, and unexpected liaisons, the Cedar Lake Garden club isn't lacking either dirt or manure. But who---or what---killed Ivy? When Rosemary decides to test the "curse" of the Malice Plant, she finds there's more than enough malice to go around.

freep.com: Perhaps the best clue in more than 420 years to North Carolina's most famous mystery has just been revealed.

The remains of the Lost Colony, it turns out, could sit under an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course in Bertie County.

Researchers at the British Museum in London, acting at the request of a group of historians and archaeologists in North Carolina, have found a symbol hidden on an ancient map that could show where members of the English colony established on Roanoke Island in 1587 moved.

Back in the early '80s, Frank Roderus, better known for his western novels, tried his hand at a crime series, very much along the lines of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee books. Carl Heller, "a great hero from the great outdoors," is a rugged outdoorsy guy who does favors for friends. In this case, the friend is a fellow in Colorado Springs who's developed some new computer software (note cool computer on cover) that he's convinced will bring in enormous profits. That is, if someone doesn't steal his idea. There's a mole in the company, and he asks Heller to find out who it is.

The "great outdoors" part of the book comes at the beginning, when Heller finds himself trapped in a sudden snowstorm while on horseback a long way from anywhere. It's a very effective scene, as is the final one where Heller is involved in the real-life equivalent of a video game.

As anyone who's read Roderus's fine westerns can tell you, he's a smooth hand with first-person narration, and Heller's quite a character. Very unlike T. McGee, too. Heller smokes, drinks lite beer, and doesn't mind consorting with a prostitute if you know what I mean and I think you do. I read most of this series in the '80s, but I'd missed this one. It was fun to catch up.

Thursday, May 03, 2012

Amazon.com: Noir City Annual #4: The Best of the NOIR CITY Magazine 2011 (9780982297339): Eddie Muller: Books: A compendium of essays, interviews, profiles, tributes, and reviews selected from the 2011 issues of NOIR CITY, a quarterly magazine exploring all aspects of cinema's most stylish and durable artistic movement.. FILM NOIR. A publication of the Film Noir Foundation, a nonprofit public benefit organization created as an educational resource regarding the cultural, historical, and artistic significance of film noir as an original American cinematic movement. All proceeds from the sale of this book go directly to rescuing and restoring vintage noir film. Learn more about the foundation at filmnoirfoundation.org

Blastr: The composer responsible for setting the mood for much of the Stargate franchise, Joel Goldsmith, has passed away at the age of 54. Goldsmith worked on Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe, scoring a total of 334 episodes during his sci-fi career.

Top 10 Most Expensive Sales on AbeBooks in April 2012: Die Verwandlung, or The Metamorphosis, was published by Franz Kafka in 1915 and it is considered one of the 20th century’s key works of fiction. Kafka’s novella sees a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, wake one morning to find he has been changed into a giant insect.

Forest Service to Hack Up Frozen Cows: If the idea of cows creepily frozen inside a mountain cabin sounds like the stuff of horror movies, bad news: The tale's ending is no less macabre. Crews with hand saws and knives plan to carve up the cattle before the carcasses thaw. A group of US Forest Service employees will head to the Colorado cabin today to cut up the remains and scatter them. Additional nightmare-inducing detail: They'll stay overnight until the job is done.

Texas Needs You: Nuisance Alligator Hunting Open to All: Have you've always dreamed of becoming an official alligator removal specialist, but never thought you'd be able to deal with all those annoying regulatory requirements? Well thanks to the unlikely combination of horny alligators and a really lousy economy, here's your chance to reach for the stars and grab that dream by its thick, scaly tail. But only if you live in Texas.

Amazon.com: Don't Cry For Me eBook: William Campbell Gault: Kindle Store: He was a heel . . . a blue-blood gone bad, a low-brow with class, a bum with an income. He liked low-slung cars and top-heavy girls, and he took his pleasure where he found it. He was the consort of bookies, dope-peddlers, crooks; the buddy of has-beens, tough guys, and junkies. He dreamed the big dream, but played it small . . . free wheeling it down hill all the way, with a crack-up—and murder—at the bottom.Too many slow horses, too many fast women, and finally, one loaded cigarette; and after that . . . trouble: a woman who wouldn’t stay, a dead man’s face that wouldn’t go away, and an alibi that wouldn’t stick . . .

You're seen those stories on the news that warn you about travel to Mexico, right? A Death in Mexico is an even more effective cautionary tale. A couple of American revelers in San Miguel Allende stumble across the body of a (formerly) beautiful woman, her eyes gouged out. Inspector Hector Diaz is rousted out of bed to investigate. Diaz is a mess. He drinks too much, he smokes too much, and his stomach problems are a constant irritation.

There's so much corruption and the drug lords have so much power that Diaz doesn't believe much in the possibility of justice. But that doesn't stop him from doing his job, or trying to, and he pulls the reader along with him through a surreal landscape with a couple of woo-woo moments that might involve ancient spirits. At the end, justice becomes a more personal thing than a systemic one.

New Pulp Press continues to impress with the quality of its offerings. A Death in Mexico is an unusual procedural that will take you down some mean, nightmarish streets, indeed. Check it out.

The Nightriders were the ultimate terror weapon, a generation of genetically engineered vampire soldiers, created in the image of man's most ancient nightmares. But when the war was over, their makers saw what they'd done, and they were afraid. They turned against their creations and tried to wipe them out.

One survived.

Now Laura So, the last Nightrider, comes out of the darkness and sets off across humanity's far-flung settled worlds, seeking vengeance on the ones who ordered the massacre of her people, Along with her lover, the more-than-human medic who saved her life, she confronts not only her enemies, but the question of who she is and her place in the universe, Because beneath the monster's skin there beats a heart that's all too human...

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

So you think your family is dysfunctional? Crime has been the family business for the Rands for generations. Terrier Rand is the only one to break away and live the straight life, but now he's been called back to his hometown by his brother, Collie, who's about to be executed for murder. Collie went on a killing spree, and eight people were left dead as a result. Collie freely admits to seven of the killings, but he swears to Terrie that he didn't kill the eighth person. He charges Terrie with finding the guilty party. This means that Terrie's going to have to reconnect with his family: his father, a burglar; his teenage sister, who's mixed up with the wrong kind of guy; his uncles; and his mother, who's not a criminal herself but who has to take care of this weird assortment of humanity.

This is a book about crime and criminals, sure, but it's also about the pull of family. Who says you can't go home again? You can, but what will happen when you get there? And when you start looking under rocks, what will you find? Piccirilli's story has suspense and heart, and plenty of both. When you finish read it, you'll be sorry to leave the company of the Rands, but don't worry. There's a sequel on the way, which is good news for sure.

Amazon.com: Guy Noir and the Straight Skinny (9780143120810): Garrison Keillor: Books: On the 12th floor of the Acme Building, on a cold February day in St. Paul, Guy Noir looks down the barrel of a loaded revolver in the hands of geezer gangster Joey Roast Beef who is demanding to hear what lucrative scheme Guy is cooking up with stripper-turned-women's-studies-professor Naomi Fallopian. Everyone wants to know-Joey, Lieutenant McCafferty, reporter Gene Williker, Guy’s ex-girlfriend Sugar O'Toole, the despicable Larry B. Larry, the dreamboat Scarlett Anderson, Mr. Kress of the FDA–and Guy faces them one by one, as he and Naomi pursue a dream of earning gazillions by selling a surefire method of dramatic weight loss. In this whirlwind caper Guy faces danger, falls in love, and faces off with the capo del capo del grande primo capo Johnny Banana.

Gainesville.com: Upset that his order wasn't prepared correctly, a 30-year-old man is accused of throwing his soda on a cash register at a Taco Bell in Gainesville on Sunday night, shutting down the restaurant's computer network for several hours.

Sure, it's cheating to write about a movie that hasn't been released. I admit it. Still, I doubt that many of you have seen this one, so I'm writing about it, anyway.

First of all, let me tell you that the biggest surprise in the movie, for me and Judy, came in the credits. (This is also a disclaimer.) Since we invested a little money in the film, we're listed in the credits as associate producers or something like that. I've already bought a turtleneck sweater, a gold chain with a big medallion dangling on it, and a hot tub.

As for the movie itself, we loved it. So did everybody else in the audience at the premiere last Friday night. The standing ovation at the end was loud, long, and enthusiastic. Of course nearly everybody in the audience was involved in the film in one way or another. We were the target audience, you might say, but I don't think it mattered. I think everybody got a genuine kick out of it.

If you've read Joe Lansdale's story on which the movie is based, you have plenty of surprises in store. Keith Lansdale, Joe's son, wrote the screenplay. He used the opening scenes from the story and the very last scene, but that's it. Pretty much everything else is Keith's invention, and it's all excellent. There are laugh-out-loud moments, gross-out moments, and quiet moments. I think the kid has a future.

I wrote earlier that Kasey Lansdale, Joe's daughter, has a role. I was under the impression that it was a small one, but I was wrong. It's a big role, and she provides some of the movie's shock value. Not to mention that it's comedy gold. She also gets to sing, another big plus. Kasey's husband, Adam Coats, has a great role as a neighbor with a funny hat and a hammer. If you know Joe Lansdale's work, you know a guy with a hammer is somebody to watch carefully.

The two "name" actors in the movie are Brad Maule and Damian Maffei. They're good apart, but when they get together, the movie really takes off. They have some very funny repartee, but then there's a lot of that in the movie. Did I mention that I think the screenwriter has a future?

And then there's Chet Williamson. I knew he was a fine writer, but I didn't know about his acting chops. When he brings the crazy, you believe every minute of it. His turn as a loony preacher is a high point, but all the small parts, loonies and zombies alike, are a treat.

The movie was directed by Terrill Lee Lankford, whose credits include Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, which of course makes him the perfect guy for a project like this one. He keeps things moving from start to finish, and he does a wonderful job with a group of mostly amateur actors and a shoestring budget.

Speaking of the budget, the movie doesn't look cheap and it doesn't sound cheap. The music is fun, and the technical crew deserves a round of applause along with everybody else.

I obviously can't claim that this is an unbiased review. All I can tell you is that I had a wonderful time watching Christmas with the Dead, and I hope you do, too, when it comes to a theater or a DVD near you.

Amazon.com: The Complete Casebook of Cardigan, Volume 1: 1931-32 (9781618270115): Frederick Nebel, John Fleming Gould, Will Murray, Walter Baumhofer: Books: Frederick Nebel's unforgettable character Jack Cardigan was one of the main reasons behind the success of the legendary Dime Detective Magazine. His hard-boiled P.I. stories were a major influence to other writers of the era, yet only a handful have been reprinted since their original 44-story run eighty years ago. Volume 1 of this series contains the first 11 installments, complete and uncut, with an all-new introduction by Will Murray and the original illustrations by John Fleming Gould. "Death Alley (November, 1931)," "Hell's Pay Check (December, 1931)," "Six Diamonds and a Dick (January, 1932)," "And There Was Murder (February, 1932)," "Phantom Fingers (March, 1932)," "Murder on the Loose (April, 1932)," "Rogues' Ransom (August, 1932)," "Lead Pearls (September, 1932," "The Dead Don't Die (October, 1932)," "The Candy Killer (November, 1932)," and "A Truck-Load of Diamonds (December, 1932)."

Amazon.com: Nights of Awe (An Ariel Kafka Mystery) (9781904738923): Harri Nykanen, Kristian London: Books: During the period known as the Days of Awe that lead up to Yom Kippur, Ariel Kafka, inspector in the Violent Crime Unit of the Helsinki police and one of two Jewish policemen in Finland, is confronted with the most difficult case of his career. Two Arabs are killed near the capital and shortly after Kafka discovers two more bodies at an Iraqi-owned garage. Are these deaths evidence of gang warfare or international terrorism? When it transpires that an Israeli minister will make an unofficial visit to Helsinki, matters become truly complicated. The Finnish Security Police and Mossad all have a role to play and Kafka is on a trail that leads back to his youth.

Home-schoolers don't miss out on prom: The largest of those is in North Texas. On Saturday night, more than 1,000 teenagers ages 14 to 19 streamed into a downtown Dallas hotel's ballroom, which was decorated to look like an ancient castle.

Patrick “Felony” Flynn has been fighting all his life. Learning the “sweet science” from Father Tim the fighting priest at St. Vincent’s, the Chicago orphanage where Pat and his older brother Mickey were raised, Pat has battled his way around the world – first with the Navy and now with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Legendary LAPD chief William Parker is on a rampage to clean up both the department and the city. His elite crew of detectives known as The Hat Squad is his blunt instrument – dedicated, honest, and fearless. Promotion from patrol to detective is Pat’s goal, but he also yearns to be one of the elite.

Billboard showcases rising cost of prom: Prom season — a period during the high school year when the economic disparity between the privileged and not-so privileged becomes more evident, and popularity contests are waged with formal attire, after-parties, limousines and ... billboards.

Waiting at the intersection of W.S. Young Drive and Veterans Memorial Boulevard, drivers were captivated this week by a pink rotating outdoor sign: "Vote Brandy Day for Prom Queen!"

They should be calling this the "Gold Medal Deal of the Day" because the books on offer are of the Gold Medal school for sure. You're going to want some of these.

Amazon.com: Kindle Daily & Gold Box Deal of the Day: Gold Box Deal of the Day: $0.99 Kindle MysteriesApril 29, 2012: Today only, more than 100 mystery books are just $0.99 each on Kindle. Kindle books can be read on Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps. Each day the Kindle Daily Deal goes live at approximately 12:00 a.m., Pacific time. Individual Daily Deal titles may have additional territory restrictions, and not all deals are available in all territories.